The NBN: what you need to know

When the NBN was first proposed by the Labor opposition in 2007, it was promised to deliver internet at 40 times the average speed of then-users.

But its rollout has already become one of the biggest political debacles in recent years –with the NBN chief this week saying if users wanted the top speeds, they would have to pay for it themselves.

The installation of the NBN is one of the biggest infrastructure projects the country has ever seen, but has been largely under the radar to the average Australian.

There has been plenty of finger-pointing between the Coalition and Labor over who is to blame. But many of the key issues being discussed are not necessarily the questions the average punter wants answered.

Here is everything you need to know about the NBN to get you started.

Where do I begin? Is the NBN even available at my house?

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The NBN is scheduled to be rolled out nationwide in the next few years, but there's about a fifty per cent chance you already have it available at your place. Regional towns are more likely to have access right now than much of the big cities, but there's a lot of suburbs that already have it installed.

This map shows the places where the NBN is available, as well as the places it is being built.

And I sign up to NBN through NBN?

No. While NBN is both the name of the fibre-optic system and the company that builds the infrastructure, you would sign up through an internet service provider (ISP), like Telstra or iiNet or TPG.

But do I have to switch?

If you want to keep a landline phone and the internet in your house, you will have to switch to the NBN. Telstra will be cutting off its copper network once the NBN is installed, so residents have 18 months to switch over once it is available in their area.

Otherwise, you will find that your phone line will stop working and your old internet won't connect.

Right. So I have plenty of time …

It depends on when the NBN was installed in your area. The 18-month deadline has already lapsed in some parts of Australia, and some regions are on the verge of the copper network shutdown as we speak. The NBN is old news for Armidale, with 90 percent of homes making the switch before the deadline.

Nationwide in places where the copper network has been phased out, 74 percent of homes have switched to the NBN. An NBN spokesperson told nine.com.au that that figure is ahead of target.

But there's even more regions where the NBN hasn't been installed yet, so the countdown is yet to begin there. It includes most of central Brisbane, much of northern and southeastern Perth and vast swathes of Adelaide, Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney.

At least the NBN will be a lot faster

Officially the NBN is much faster - but in practice a lot of users won't see much of a change from ADSL. It's partly because most users were only using the internet in quantities that ADSL could handle, so there wasn't a very noticeable difference.

But the Turnbull government assures users that speeds that are slower than expected are not because of their decision to use fibre-to-the-node (FTTN). FTTN means that the fibre optic cables in the NBN are not connected to a user's house, but instead to a central spot that services the neighbourhood. Each house is then hooked up to the NBN via the old copper cables they had been using before.

Your internet speeds are dependent on how close you live to the node. If you live more than a few hundred metres away, your internet speed will be affected somewhat.

It's also a short-term solution that saves money now, but means more maintenance costs in the future.

So I guess it will be more expensive than regular broadband?

Not necessarily. There are more expensive options if you want to choose a super-high speed, but the average punter paying for an average package will most likely pay about the same as they would have for their ADSL.

The cheaper options actually offer the same speeds as ADSL, for people who are more interested in price.

How long does it take to install?

It depends, but switching to the NBN could take as little as a few minutes. But those few minutes could come at an inconvenient time. Like your average tradie, the NBN technicians will need you to be home when they are ready for you, and will likely give you a broad range of a few hours during which time you will be housebound. It may also take a good few weeks for them to schedule a time.

Once the technician is there, it could be as simple as plugging in the modem, but will likely involve some work with the wiring.

What about my landline?

If you're old school, you'll know that your v landline phone will still work during a blackout. But not after the old copper grid is shut off. So if you are hanging onto your Bakelite Rotary-dial phone, you may need to switch to something more modern if you want to keep a landline.

It will also mean that your phone line will now run via the internet. The Alexander Graham Bell system will be phased out entirely in favour of a "UNI-V" service, which would allow you to keep your old number if you switch over.

What other hardware is NBN-vulnerable?

It's not just old-school phones that might stop working once the old copper network is axed. Medical alarms, monitored fire alarms and lift emergency phones need to be registered with the NBN after the switch.

Fax machines, security systems and EFTPOS terminals might also not be compatible with the new NBN.

OK, I'm all filled in on the NBN. Now tell me about the fibre-to-the-what …

The phrases being bandied around these days all relate to where the fibre optic cables end up. The fibre optic cables are effectively the tubes the high-speed internet flows through, to use a deeply simplistic analogy.

Right now much of the NBN is limited to fibre-to-the-node (FTTN), which means the cables only extend to a centralised spot, or node, in a community. The node is on about 400m away from the average residence, with the remaining copper grid connecting homes to the NBN.

Essentially FTTN is like replacing a gravel pit with a waterslide, but cutting the waterslide two metres short of the swimming pool. The high-speed internet still reaches the home, but it is slowed down by the last stage of the process.

Fibre-to-the-curb is a step-up in quality from FTTN, and is what it sounds like. Basically it means the fibre optic cables are brought to each street, with the copper wiring stretching from the kerb to the homes themselves.

NBN has addressed why they have adopted the American spelling of "curb". It's simply to maintain international standards to avoid confusion.

Fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) was the original plan for the NBN when it was proposed by the Rudd government. As the name suggests, it is the best and fastest option, but it's only available in limited places.

FTTP is available at the places that received the NBN before the change in government in 2013, or in places where there is no existing copper grid, ie- new residential areas.

Users can pay for a FTTP extension from the existing FTTN or FTTC, but odds are it won't be cheap, and will require more hardware than the standard NBN modem.

But for real internet junkies, the difference may be worthwhile. While a standard NBN package has a top download speed of 12Mbps (megabits per second), FTTP can reach 100Mbps.